The Golden Isles - Into the Sunset

[Imager36]

A nice easy win to start my limited overs build up.



We'll be hoping for two more of these to come, to be honest! We got three wickets very quickly at the start of their innings to leave them 16/3 and unable to really push forward at any sort of rate. Williams was a thorn in our side almost the whole way through, first joined by Chakabva, and then Chisoro. Thankfully, just as they were looking to hit for home, we took out Williams through Sammy and then Chisoro through Narine, and Bravo and Sammy polished off the tail admirably to set us a fairly low target.

Neither Gayle nor Bravo made it out of the teens, but by the time they had both gone, we had moved to 91, largely courtesy of Brathwaite. It was a gem of an innings from the opener on ODI debut, joined by a brisk 40 from Marlon Samuels, and then a small contribution at the end from Leon Johnson. Requiring two to win, Brathwaite smashed a four over mid off, and brought up his maiden ODI century at the same time as winning the game! It came from 134 balls, and his scoring rate is the only potential worry in the future over this talent.

Batting Award - Kraigg Brathwaite - A lovely unbeaten century from the 22 year old made sure there were no jitters!

Bowling Award - Darren Sammy - Opening the bowling for us on this pitch, Sammy took four very important wickets to restrict Zimbabwe, and we hope he continues against larger opponents!

Team News - On a slower pitch, Santokie is replaced by Permaul. Zimbabwe bring in another Masakadza in place of Mupariwa. We win the toss, and choose to bowl once more.

[GrahamB]

Zimbabwe do seem particularly weak.

[Chris Child]

Zimbabwe were improved a bit in the 15.02 update, but this save was started in an earlier version.

[GrahamB]

Zimbabwe were improved a bit in the 15.02 update, but this save was started in an earlier version.

That would explain it. Thanks Chris.

[Imager36]

Zimbabwe do seem particularly weak.

Zimbabwe were improved a bit in the 15.02 update, but this save was started in an earlier version.

Well this is awkward.



Looking back on it, I'm not really sure how I managed to lose this match, on a pitch that looked very flat. They started decently through their openers and that man Williams again, but taking Masakadza and Chakabva quickly left them 122/4, and we were hopeful of limiting them to the sort of total we chased easily last time around. Raza, Chisoro and Madziva made sure they got over 200 this time, and while the total did not look formidable, it at least gave them something to try and bowl at.

Brathwaite, Gayle and Bravo all fell early in our reply to put us on 30/3 and now struggling against Zimbabwe. Samuels and Johnson played nicely together in a partnership of 88 to give us a fair shot at the victory, which was still really expected when their partnership ended. Dwayne Bravo fell quickly after Johnson, and while Ramdin played well, Samuels got out at just the wrong time to leave us 168/6, and unfortunately the lower order couldn't pull us out of the mess we had made for ourselves.

Batting Award - Marlon Samuels - A good innings, would have been better if there was a far smaller amount of chaos surrounding it.

Bowling Award - Jason Holder - The captain delivered with the ball, a shame that the rest, and the batting unit, could not step up to the task.

Team News - With all to play for in the final match, Carlos Brathwaite replaces Permaul on a seamers' pitch.

[Imager36]

Thankfully we managed to up our game for the final match of series.



Our innings had both disappointments and some nice high points to look at. Brathwaite's innings was a good, solid start, scoring 62 from 94 balls, but he didn't manage to hang around for long enough after he started accelerating to really punish Zimbabwe. Gayle's run-a-ball 39 was also useful, but at 3, Darren Bravo's 21 from 56 balls was exactly the opposite of the innings we needed at the time, even when given instruction to attack. Hopefully just a blip, but a worrying one nonetheless. Cameo 35s from Johnson (33 balls) and Ramdin (30 balls) managed to push our run rate to where it should always have been, and a couple of lusty blows from Darren Sammy made sure we posted the highest total of this low-scoring series so far.

We took Raza's wicket early, and while Williams managed to stick around and play brilliantly, we chipped off enough wickets at the other end to mean it was going to be hard for him to win the game on his own. By the 39th over, however, he was combining with Jongwe, and the run rate required was down to under 5.5, which it had been above for most of the innings, with their worm significantly up on ours. A quadruple wicket maiden followed for Darren Sammy that was absolutely perfect, and we won the series about a minute after being unsure of our chances. One caught behind, one caught mid on, one LBW and the final one bowled.

Batting Award - Chris Gayle - Not the substantial score he will have wanted, but a decent start to the innings for our self-proclaimed 'world boss'.

Bowling Award - Darren Sammy - Largely for that over, Sammy's performance was really something to behold, coming back having had a number of his overs saved up to be used at the death.

Squad News - On we go then, to two T20Is against the same opponents. Kirk Edwards, Lendl Simmons and Ash Nurse come into the squad for the less-T20 minded Johnson Charles, Kraigg Brathwaite and Veerasammy Permaul, and our team for the first match reads: Gayle, Simmons†, Edwards, Samuels, Johnson, Dwayne Bravo, Sammy, Holder (C), Nurse, Narine, Santokie. We win the toss, and bowl first.

[Imager36]

I'll go through both of these in the same post, because they'll be fairly quick!

First up, an absolute smashing.



Zimbabwe started well, hitting 22 from the first 2 overs to shock us, but we managed to regain control at the end of the powerplay through Santokie and Dwayne Bravo, who took 2 wickets in his first two overs. Then Nurse and Narine came on and started to absolutely choke Zimbabwe, as well as taking 5 wickets between them in the 7.2 overs they got to bowl. They forced a collapse from 72/3 to 95 all out, and Zimbabwe had gone with only just over 15 of their 20 overs used.

The total was never going to be an issue unless they took lots of early wickets, and they only got one early, with Simmons LBW for a golden duck. That was all they were getting for a while though, as Gayle and Edwards both hit 40-odd scores to make sure that we had no real problems reaching our target, with just under 5 overs to spare.

Batting Award - Gayle/Edwards - Both deserve something for their good knocks. Gayle more aggressive, Edwards, of course, not out.

Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - 4 overs, 3 wickets for 20 runs. Pretty impressive figures from the T20 expert.

Team News - With one match left, we decide not to change anything. We win the toss, and field first again.

And we followed it up with an even more convincing thrashing.



This time it was Santokie's turn to be hit early on, but Sammy took 3 wickets in his first two overs to make sure they didn't get away from us. After that, of course, the spinners could come on again, and it was almost too easy for them. Sammy took his fourth wicket, and Narine took one in his first over to leave them six down in the 9th, and they never recovered, with combined figures for the spinners of 6.2 overs, 1 maiden, 5 wickets for 13 runs.

In reply, we were always in control. This time, Simmons was able to avoid the first baller, and we galloped to an easy victory by 10 wickets, a nice start to our World T20 year.

Batting Award - Lendl Simmons - 48 from 31 from the powerful keeper, showing he's likely to be a good option for us through the year.

Bowling Award - Darren Sammy - 4/23 is a good return from 4 overs, and his work meant that there would never be a position from Zimbabwe to strike from.

[Imager36]

Zimbabwe Analysis

We played as well as we could have expected, apart from in that match we lost.

Sri Lanka Preview

We go to Sri Lanka next, who are probably the first side we're playing this year where the results of the series are really up in the air. We play a 3 day friendly against Sinhalese, then two tests, a List A friendly against Nondescripts, 3 ODIs and 2 T20Is to finish the tour off. We can be hopeful of victories in all formats, but will need to make sure our spinners and batsmen are on form for that to happen.

For the warm up and the tests, we pick the same 18 man squad, as follows. Here, (P) denotes a player on the performance programme who will play in the warm-up match, but is unlikely to make a test début.

K. Brathwaite (O)
C. Gayle (O)
J. Solozano (O) (P)
K. Edwards (O/BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
L. Johnson (BAT)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT)
J. Blackwood (BAT)
D. Ramdin (K) (C)
S. Hope (O/K) (P)
N. Deonarine (ASP)
J. Holder (ALL)
C. Brathwaite (SEAM)
R. Rampaul (SEAM)
V. Permaul (SPIN)
J. Taylor (SEAM)
K. Roach (SEAM)
C. Powell (SEAM) (P)

And the XI for the warm-up match is: K. Brathwaite (C), Solozano, Edwards, Chanderpaul, Blackwood, Hope†, Deonarine, C. Brathwaite, Powell, Rampaul, Roach.

[Imager36]

A fairly disappointing tour match leaves us scratching our heads before the tests.



I won't do a full summary as it's only a tour match but, as you can see from the card, our bowling looked properly toothless throughout, only taking 9 wickets and going at well over 4 an over in the game. Thankfully, only one of these bowlers will need to play in the Tests, with Holder, Taylor and Permaul in the wings, but it goes to show how limited our seam bowling resources are, with Roach being the only one to really threaten, and Rampaul and Brathwaite being picked out for punishment. We scored slowly, but batted decently with a shorter order than normal, with Shai Hope in particular impressive in his 77, largely against the spinners, his cover drives especially fluent.

So, with that match being done, we move on to Colombo, and the teams for the first Test, on a dusty wicket, look like this:

Sri Lanka	West Indies
U. Tharanga	K. Brathwaite
T. Paranavitana	C. Gayle
A. Mathews (C)	K. Edwards
K. Sangakkara	D. Bravo
D. Chandimal	L. Johnson
K. Vithanage	S. Chanderpaul
K. Perera†	D. Ramdin† (C)
T. Kaushal	J. Holder
S. Eranga	V. Permaul
R. Herath	J. Taylor
L. Gamage	K. Roach

Our only change from the Zimbabwe series, therefore, is Roach in for Carlos Brathwaite. Sri Lanka bring in limited overs international Kushal Perera for his Test début, and play two spinners in their attack, meaning they might have to bowl captain Angelo Mathews, something we will look to take advantage of in our first innings. We lose the toss, unfortunately, and will have to bowl first in the match.

[Imager36]

I think the pitch deteriorated quickly, but it could just be that we didn't bowl very well in the first innings.



We started well actually, taking Sri Lanka's top 3 out for 60 runs, Holder with an early wicket and Permaul taking two almost immediately when he came on. From that point on? Well, it was an absolute masterclass in test match batting from one of the game's recent legends, Kumar Sangakkara. He struggled to his first 50, but after that there was almost nothing we could do to contain him, with none of my bowlers or funky fields being able to put him off his stride. Vithanage and Perera were both able to stick with him for concerted periods of time, and we knew we were behind the game on this tough pitch.

Our first innings, in stark contrast to Sangakkara, was a tale of people getting starts and failing to go on. Beside 66s from Edwards and Chanders, Brathwaite, Gayle, Bravo and Ramdin all scored between 22 and 37, and the fact that none of them went on from there meant that we were really struggling against a class bowling attack, as Kaushal and Eranga managed to take wickets just at the times when it hurt us most, and left us almost 150 behind.

We bowled superbly in their second innings, however. The fifth wicket fell with only 76 on the board, and while Vithanage managed to score a good amount on the worn pitch, I think we can be very pleased with managing to dismiss them for only 169. The four frontline bowlers all shared the wickets, with Roach and Permaul grabbing 3 each, and Taylor and Holder both taking 2. The target was a touch above 300, and while I didn't think a victory was likely against their spinners, I was hopeful!

It was, unfortunately, not to be. I think the first four wickets falling for only 39 runs sort of put paid to any thoughts I might have had about winning the game, and we were never going to rescue it as we were still in the fourth day! Leon Johnson still had time to play a gem of an innings though, as he hit his fourth test match century, his third in his last four knocks! A shame some of the other batsmen couldn't stick around to stand at the other end, really.

Batting Award - Leon Johnson - Maybe a knock in a lost cause, but he played very well in the second innings against a tough pitch and some good spinners.

Bowling Award - Veerasammy Permaul - Was the only bowler to secure decent figures from the first innings, and looks set to be our first choice spinner for a while to come!

Toss News - We go to Kandy needing a win to salvage a draw from the series, on what looks to be a perfect pitch for batting. We stick with the same side, and Sri Lanka swap opener Tharanga for Karunaratne in a straight switch. We win the toss, and look to make good on our chance to bat first.